Wide Area Networking (WAN) systems such as various cellular wireless phone systems are known. These systems by nature and design provide a widely implemented solution for mobility management and geographic tracking of communication units. These systems have proven and been designed to be an effective means of providing communication services such as voice telephony, short messaging, and some moderate rate data communications services with near global geographic coverage.
Certain emerging requirements for communications services necessitate capabilities that will not be supported on such cellular systems. Most multi-media and video services require bandwidths and other capabilities that transcend the capabilities of cellular service providers. Hence, many very wide bandwidth applications and services that are rapidly evolving, for example, on the Internet, have not to date and perhaps will not ever become readily and widely accessible to the mobile or wireless user via a WAN system.
New systems and end user devices or units are being contemplated that provide for or include, respectively, high bandwidth short range networking capabilities, using Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies such as 802.11b or Bluetooth. These links may allow mobile handsets to establish Internet attachments when they approach a network access point (NAP). These WLAN based systems may create an opportunity for these untethered devices to enjoy high bandwidth services, once reserved for fixed devices. However, the WLAN systems only provide short range coverage, are not widely deployed, or do not provide for user mobility and hence are not generally suitable of providing enhanced services for mobile users over a wide area. What is needed is means and methodologies to integrate the capabilities of WAN and WLAN systems to complete an end-to-end enhanced services vision, including mobility management, dynamic attachment and call management incorporated into an overall system. This invention addresses this need.